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January 16, 2005

Starbucks is the #2 best company to work for (in the large company category)

That's according to Fortune magazine. (Wegmans, a grocery chain, is #1.) In its January 24 issue, Fortune says: "The coffee behemoth is justly famous for its generous benefits. One example: Part-timers and their same-or opposite-sex partners receive comprehensive health coverage. Hypnotherapy? Covered. Naturopathy? Ditto." The magazine says AVERAGE ANNUAL PAY for salaried employees is $44,790; for hourly employees, it's $35,294. Starbucks ranks #11 on the best-places list when small and medium companies are included in the list.

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average yearly pay for hourly employees : $35,294 ???

i love starbucks. but that figure seems absolutely ridiculous to me.

my pay this year will be under ten thousand dollars. now i understand, that i, as a relatively new barista am at the very bottom of the rung as far as pay goes, it just seems weird that the AVERAGE would be so high...

So, the average pay for a barista is over $30,000? Sort of strange that I would run into one of my fellow baristas in the dole line the other day. Even if I worked 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year I would still make less than $20,000. Before taxes.
I'm really not bitter-*$ treats me well on a lot of fronts but---really! Those numbers are absurd.

This is insane. $tar*ucks is a corporate behemouth who talks out both sides of it's collective mouth. I'm amazed that Fortune continues to buy this line. Benefits for part timers? Not unless you have a totally open availability, otherwise AWS is set up to keep you under 20 hrs/week.
Respect and Dignity? Puh-leeese! Seattle keeps rolling out new products and new programs (like clean-sweep) without ever increasing the manpower to match the increased responsibilities! Meanwhile, you're to create a "Third Place" environment.... there's barely time to thank customers let alone have any conversation. And we won't even address what they're doing to third world coffee growers while Orin crows about a single $20,000 school house project which is less than 1% of his (not Howards or the rest of the Management team and Board of Directors) bonus for the year. Forget it. It's a successful company in a free economy. fine, make your profits, but Please, do n't insult our intelligence with this Community and Environment B.S.

I don't know where they got that figure, but I definitely know the average barista is NOT making $35,000. They must be including plant workers or something. For awhile, I was waiting tables and working at Starbucks. Then I realized that I made more waiting tables 25 hours a week than I would being an assistant manager for 40 hours. So now I just wait tables (I hang on to one night a week at Starbucks just to remain an employee).

First of all, the scheduleing program is called ALS, not 'AWS', and no where in the program, unless YOU-Mr Manager- changes its settings, does it schedule partners less than 20 hours per week. (Of course if you really were an ex-manager, you would know that). I have 20 partners and 14 have benefits, (2 are covered under their parents insurance, 2 are new partners and 1 only works 2 days a week, because of a 2nd job). That leaves 1 that doesn't get 20 hours a week.

Secondly, with "clean-sweep" stores WERE given 1.5% more labor to do cleaning jobs (which should have been done in the first place). They basically gave you more time to do the job you were hired to do in the first place.

Thirdly, Starbucks pays higher than market price for ALL coffee they buy. If you don't think they give back to the communities and environment, you are not paying attention.

I do have a question about tuition reimbursement. Starbucks touts it as a great benefit, but the problem I see with the program is that it only covers classes directly related to the business (which is pretty narrowly defined at that) but if it is a class that may help you get promoted, it is not eligibile for reimbursement. So what kind of class would be good for Starbucks' business but not help a Barista get promoted to shift, assistant manager, etc.??

Also, it looks like if the student is getting any financial aid at all, the program will not reimburse them either. Even if the figures are correct and Starbucks is paying $35K a year, a lot of employees that were taking courses would still be eligible for financial aid and therefore would not receive tuition reimbursement. Is this a case of rolling out a program that gets good PR but is so narrowly defined that no one can use it?

Anyone out there know how many Baristas are actually accepted into the Tuition Reimbursement Program compared to how many applied for it?

lots of good comments on this site - for SBUX employees as well as anyone else out there. I have not read the article in Fortune,but the average for hourly workers is very high. Hard to tell how they got that number without having background info. An average barista will make around 10K not including tips or the value of benifits. SBUX just raised their minimum hourly wage to 7.50 (at least in CA). Ass. managers are not hourly workers but on a full time salary working at leasat 40 hrs per week.
As far as tuition reimbursement goes, classes directly related to you work does seem narrowly defined, but I have not heard of anyone who was not approved for reimbursement (I work with a lot of college students with different majors). Keep in mind though that the reimbursement levels are quite low, a max of $1000 per year (500 for most baristas). It's not like SBUX will be paying for your ivy league tuition but it will cover books and some supplies and that is already more than you well get elsewhere.
It's so easy to bitch about a corporate giant like SBUX. If you don't like it, don't go there. But do you honestly think your small neighborhood place to hang out can offer its employees any benifits at all or support the local community with fund raisers and donations or support the coffee growing villages etc etc?
.. that's all for now, got to go, need some java....

I would appreciate some comment from current *$ partners on this question. I will be interviewing very soon for a management position and have been trying to figure out what kind of salary to request. I was asked what my salary requirements were when I was called for the interview but skirted the question by telling them that advancement opportunity was more important than starting salary. I realize though that I should come up with some kind of number. The 35K mentioned above is pretty impressive but would probably get me laughed out the door. I definitely don't need that much to be comfortable but also don't want to go too low with my answer as I'm sure I will be asked the question again. I live in TX in a fairly large city which has what I feel to be an average cost of living compared to other cities around the country. If any of you could help me out here I would be grateful.

Yes I've done my dues in the foodservice industry but I've spent the last ten years in retail management. I'm aware that compensation has a lot to do with experience so I'm really interested in finding a low to high range.

I would like to take this opportunity to tell everyone that I have been with Starbucks for almost a year now, and I am a PROUD partner. My goal in life is to be successful, but also to be able to make a difference in someones life...At our store, we definelty create the third place. The customers make my day, a lot our regulars are part of my life. We talk about everything..I miss them when I am away and don't see them, they know I have been away and always ask where I have been. I make decent money, but maybe this is the part where I am not so worried about money bringing me happiness...Even though I plan on moving up one day...the happiness lies within making the customers happy, making them laugh or smile...lots of hugs. Call me corny, but this is my home...I would not leave for anything...legendary.......

Please help! I'm trying to find out what is the starting pay for the barista position in California. My manager told me it is $7.00 when she offered me the job. I have a Bachelor's degree, have excellent customer service and retail experience. However, I don't have food or restaurant experience. I tried to negotiate, but she said she couldn't offer more. Is this true???

Hey, I don't completey understand why sometimes there is kinds "descrimination" in promotions you see sometimes an employee who's been working as a shift supervisor for 7 years, and then you'll a "Blondie" who's got promoted to a store managers or DM in a couple to three years at most this is Totally Bull shit.

I am looking in to becoming a starbucks employee. It sounds like a wonderful opportunity, but I am hearing a lot of negativity here. I am passionate about coffee and need health insurance. For someone who is looking for a fun job and is more in it for the experience and benefits than the $... is it worth it?

Lets not forget that up until recently Wal-Mart was on the Fortune Top 100 Companies to work for. I've worked for two companies on that list its become apparent to me that being high on the list and worker income are not correlated at all.

Another thing I'm finding a little cooky is that people are saying that Fortune Magazine including the net worth of the benefits package into the average salary. Give me a break! A lot of people don't even use the benefits so how can that be included? It looks more to me like Starbucks gave them those numbers and they published them. Not very good reporting but very good advertising.

Those average salaries they have on there are astronomical compared to what we are making at the store level. I wish they would break it down a little more and say what the average annual barista/shift supervisor salary was.

Your "guesstimate" of the average Starbucks employee earning $35 - $44,000 per year is totally untrue. My son has been working for Starbucks for 3 years and only makes $8.35 per hour and that is including tips. For a full time employee (40 hours per week) we are talking a whopping $16,500 per year. Where are you getting these inaccurate figures?????

Think a bit more about the company as a whole. This was a statistic about full time employees. Most Baristas aren't so they are out of the equation. Remember that Howard and the other VP and above people are full time employees and they are probably compensated a bit over 40K a year.

Yes, Starbucks chairman Howard Schultz DOES get a bit over $40,000/year. In fact, he got $2.45 million in 2002, according to this article below. I suspect his 2003 and 2004 compensation was even greater.

http://www.forbes.com/2003/01/28/0128facesam.html

>>> Remember that Howard Schultz and the other VP and above people are full time employees and they are probably compensated a bit over 40K a year.

Yeah, i only make $7.25/hr plus roughly another $1.40/hr in tips at Starbucks. My Assistant Manager is barely making $15/hr and she gets no share of the tips. Another thought, the Starbucks employees who work in Targets, Krogers, or Barnes 'N Nobles get no health coverage b/c the those companies pay them through a special business contract. I am told, however, that they start out at .50/hr more per hour than Starbucks-owned partners.

That is untrue about the Targets Krogers and Barnes and Nobles Employees. I am one and you are actually the employee of the store the starbucks is in and not actually starbucks itself. So you get the target, Kroger ect. Benefits and you do get paid alot more if its a Union store (Kroger). You arent allowed Tips but your raises also come alot faster as well.

Coffeeboy: nice and accurate retort to "ex-manager" who clearly needed to be ex'ed if he was using "AWS" and tweaking weekly hr settings below 20

Carrie: I've seen ASM's go SM in a year or less- and that in a long established, thus slower moving, market. But you really must drive for it and push your creativity and innovation in a way that develops others and enhances the total store experience.

If you are a good fit for this company, anything is possible; so keep your heart in it and find good leaders for support and guidance.

If someone is not a good fit for the company (whatever way it fits into their life), i wish they would spend less time spreading their bitter and frequently false views and mis-interpretations of policies, standards and practices. really, now, just go and do what makes you happy instead of believing your vituperative contributions here will derail a great enterprise... and thereby cut into Howard's well-deserved bonus.

Hey, bitter ones, go revolutionize and reinvent a common commodity yourself to create a top-ranked global retailer. Stand before your shareholders and insist on a visionary idea like health and investment benefits for part-time workers (like H.S. did 20 years ago when such an idea was anathema to investors) when your company is still in the red. Reshape an idea and make it work. Then complain if your bonus is smaller than his.

I have been with Starbucks for over eight years, and have been a supervisor for seven of them. For the past three years I have been pursuing an assistant manager position and have seen many problems with the way we promote our partners, mainly from a DM standpoint. One promoted a partner who had not expressed any desire to be manager, while I had been working on the same PDP for months. The next gave me a list of things to do, which I did, and then she left the company. Our new district manager has a totally new way, and a totally new list of things for me to do and he is only temporary until they find someone to be DM. And he has even asked a three month barista to fax him his resume to be considered for a management position, while telling my manager he wouldn't speak to me until I had started a new PDP. Fortunately, I believe in the company, and am willing to stick it out, but for those on this blog who want to know, unless you have a shoe in, it is a very long process to get promoted in this company. Wish me luck!

I am interviewing for a shift supervisor and have found all your comments really helpful and informative. I was wondering if anyone has a rough estimate of what a shift supervisor makes per hour. I have other management opportunities that I know could pay better elsewhere but I love coffee and Starbucks as an organization and would like to believe I could progress in the company. Is this naive?

I was just offered a SM position in a big city in Texas. They offered 36k which is a little less than what I made at Target in mgmt. I asked if they'd match Target and they got rude and refused to budge even a little. Does this say something about this district? I do have some foodservice experience at Target because my job covered the food court area. And I have my food safety certificate.

Before I decide to take it, can anyone tell me how many hours a mgr works, what are they REQUIRED to work, what shifts do they work, can they increase sales with catering jobs? Any info would be great. Thanks!

You must work 40 hrs a week, different dayparts, covering one open and one close per week. The others should be during the peak periods. You must work on Mondays, because that is the day to do payroll, schedules, etc.
I have seen store managers work anywhere between 40 hours and 55+ it just depends on what you, how you use your time, and the extra that you put into your position.
Anything you want to do outside of the store MUST be approved by the Marketing department in your area.
It does not say that the district is rude, it says that they know what they can offer, remember that the benifits are good, and bonusing raises your salary.

How hard is it to do marketing for your store? What kind of stuff can you do? I've never come across a SB that did any kind of marketing at all, but it says marketing is part of the position in the job description.

Im on the "Board" with my assistant manager and DM to get me trained for ASM. So I have another 1 on 1 on monday and ill get the details but it should be another couple of months befor the thing goes through.

If you are interested about moving up in the company its actually easy. If you do you job well and get along with you manager all you usually have to do is ask, if theres room in the Payroll it will happen. I mean i started working in Feb and ill probabley be an ASM by late Nov.

Note I do live in a wierd area thats full of rich people and transient employment. Its full of ski resorts and visa applicants working on the slops. Oh and im getting 8.50 I do tips on mondays and they're usually 2.90 - 3.50 an hour.

I went to a job fair today that starbucks put on to hire managers and assistaint managers.I have never been to this type of hiring process before but I talked to on interviewer for one hour then he sent me to talk to the dm she said that some would call on or before next monday.I was woundering if that is the way job fairs go and do they ever hire on the spot?
Any one who could help me would be great.

From what I gather, since so many people are asking about salaries on this posting, it appears that assistant managers make an average of $27K, and store managers make an average of $30-35K. I'm sure it depends on the area's competitive salaries and how much the individual store is bringing in. The person who said that local small businesses cannot afford to compensate their employees or give as much back to their community as a large corporation are categorically wrong. I think Starbucks does a great job giving back to the community. I also have owned a successful small business for several years and we have offered health insurance & other benefits, even to our PT employees for years. We also pay our assistant manager and manager and hourly workers the same as Starbucks. We also give a lot to different national and community charities & arts programs. The more you make the more you can give back, of course, but on a store by store basis, locally-owned small businesses can and often do give back quite a bit. I think both large corporations and small local businesses have there pros and cons and both have something to offer the community in their own way. I think both are necessary to a healthy economy.